The insanely fast Hyperloop will soon begin testing in Nevada

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Ever since Elon Musk unveiled his Hyperloop concept in August 2013, there’ve been organizations working to bring at least a test track online and see if the concept can work. One of those companies, Hyperloop Technologies Inc, has announced that its own plans are moving forward. The organization will build its Propulsion Open-Air Test (POAT) near Las Vegas, Nevada.

As the name implies, POAT will be used to test linear electric motors. Linear induction motors are typically used in maglev trains (in low-acceleration applications) and for coil and railguns (in awesome, high-speed applications). Musk’s original whitepaper on the subject mentioned linear electric motors as the practical method of driving Hyperloop capsules, and a follow-up paper from Hyperloop Technologies appears to agree with this, though the company notes it’s exploring multiple methods of stabilizing the capsule in the tube, including the proposed air cushion as well as a wheel-based solution.

The larger question, of course, is whether or not the Hyperloop represents a fifth mode of transportation (as compared to rail, roads, flight, and sea travel), or if it’s an interesting idea without much current practicality. Hyperloop Technologies has said in past presentations that it would like to see the cost of a Hyperloop ticket driven down into the $20-$30 range over the long term and believes it could be competitive for long-distance (or fast delivery) freight hauling. At $20-$30 a ticket, a Hyperloop network could conceivably deliver passengers from Point A to Point B at greater-than airline speed for Greyhound prices. That’s an extremely attractive proposition for all sorts of reasons, but we’re still a long way from proving that a real-world Hyperloop can be built and operated while maintaining sustainable revenue.

Proposed Hyperloop network

Hyperloop Technologies envisions a network of tubes spanning most of the country, but this model actually shows the difficulty of ramping up a new mode of transport. Compare the map of proposed HT hubs with the current map of US air coverage.

US domestic flights

As someone who enjoys air travel just slightly more than being attacked by giant wasps, I’m sympathetic to the argument that Hyperloop transport could provide a faster, cheaper method of transportation. Even if the technology works, however, I’m not certain the business case will. It may provide specific options to users in destination cities traveling directly between them, but it’s more difficult to make a case for point-to-point Hyperloop transport replacing the air network. Air travel is cumbersome and inconvenient, particularly if you don’t live in a hub city and have to travel through multiple airports to reach a destination — but as the above diagram shows, 70 years of expansion have created a network that serves a huge percentage of the United States.

Still, we won’t know if the solution can work until we’ve tried to build one. Hopefully Hyperloop Technologies’ motor tests will shed more light on the kinds of designs that work well in this context and pave the way for further testing in 2017 – 2018.

Tagged In

Basically an air-tight, low drag transportation system using a long tube and a capsule inside it to move passengers and cargo quickly. Much like those air tubes at the bank.

Ekard

It is not air tight, creating and maintaining a near vacuum is infinitely easier than a vacuum.

Zergling

It is space travel on earth.

eonvee375

+1

XenoSilvano

That is the tag line for ET3 (Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies), a superior mode of transport in my opinion, which is different from the Hyperloop project, the main difference being the implementation of maglev technology something which Hyperloop does not use.

Imagine a bullet going down a barrel. Now imagine you are inside of the bullet.

Riely Rumfort

Lol

Zunalter

It’s a series of tubes!

ackthbbft

As I understand it, the original concept is like a maglev-monorail inside a vacuum tube (and by that I don’t mean that the tube is pulling/pushing air like the vacuum tubes at the bank, as others have suggested, I mean it has been vacated of nearly all air to eliminate resistance). The car in the tube would accelerate magnetically at a mere 1G (which you’d barely feel), but over a short amount of time allows it to reach extremely high speeds, potentially even mach (the lack of air in the tube would prevent sonic booms). As it approaches a stop, it similarly slows down magnetically. To get an idea of what I mean by accelerating/decelerating “magnetically,” a series of electromagnets slightly ahead of the car would increase in power to pull the car faster and faster until it reaches top speed. The polarity would be reversed to cause resistance to slow the car back down. These magnets would need to be activated ahead of the car so that they never actually reach a point of critical-attraction and cause the car to stop suddenly (liquifying the passengers) or otherwise be pulled backwards as it passes. (Alternately, instead of reversing polarity, the magnets could be activated behind the car as it passes to slow it down.)

Ekard

The hyper loop will be a near vacuum system.

XenoSilvano

You are thinking of ET3, this hyperloop it will not use maglev technology.

Riely Rumfort

A venturi syphon.

pǝɹǝʇuǝ ǝuou

Will it loop twice? I ask because the article displays twice.

Richard “Raptorian” C.

Loops! Loops everywhere!

Garu Derota

it will be an extremely easy target for terrorists. at that speed, any damage to a single point of the transportation tube (or pillars under it) will result in a tremendous crash, explosion and disintegration…

Ëndrìt Zeqiri

If the people funding terrorists started funding these projects we’d get there a lot quicker.
You could build it underground.

Riely Rumfort

Right beside the existing Lev trains?
You know not.

XenoSilvano

Building it underground would be a pain when it comes to maintainence.

Roy Reynolds

You mean like a bridge?

Garu Derota

yes, like a typical 380 miles long bridge

Marc GP

Yes, exactly the same as with planes, railroads, suburban, ships, … Terrorists already have a lot of options to target lots of people with a single target.

We can’t allow fear to stop us.

Garu Derota

yes but every single yard of this means of trasportations will be critical. it will be a lot more dangerous than any other means of transportations because of the insane speed. I am not saying I would not use it though!

Marc GP

In a couple of weeks I will take a high-speed railway to my hometown. It goes at 200mph (310km/h), an attack to the rails will cause thousands of victims. I don’t really see this much different.

KIMS

the nature of the design allows damage to be detected more reliably than damage to say a commuter rail system. So unless they time the explosion to go off right as the tube-train passes by, it would be somewhat harder to cause mayhem on this system vs a current day railroad system… and if they are timing it to go off right before or “on” the passing tube-train, then this is no worse than the same scenario in current day train or sub-way systems.

jeffhre

Latest projections have it as slower than commercial air transport. Planes are clearly the king of insane speed, so far.

JKLauderdale

Depends on the hop – If you’re looking at Tampa to Miami, no. Tampa to NYC? You’re probably better off using the plane

jeffhre

Thank you! Though, how can a plane be better or worse than something that is yet to exist? Can’t yet show the numbers to back it up – how does one make up one’s mind without evidence?

No to what? I am not referring to relative time of travel, I am referring to the latest information posted regarding the projected speeds of the pods, from the group working in California.

Marc GP

Yes, planes are faster, but that don’t have to mean that you arrive to your destination first. The stations can be placed in the middle of the city, and the boarding process should be shorter (no need to be at the airport 1 hour before the departure). Besides, they should be pods going every few minutes, so you just have to go to the station whenever you want and take the next pod available.

The accumulated time from your home to your final destination should be shorter, and you don’t need to be bound to a rigid schedule. Looks much more practical to use.

jeffhre

Possibly. I still can’t get my mind around how it is more practical to use something that does not exist!

The original proposal was for pods that were faster than the airspeed of any commercial plane. No one can say what the ultimate difference in travel times will be since the configuration of stations and pod speeds is still in flux. This will affect both the placement of stations and their practicality.

Kyle

I definitely see where you’re coming from, but the same can be said about other transportation that we already have. This will no doubt have some danger and risk involved, especially in the earliest implementations, but I suspect that like airplanes, it will eventually be safer then what we already have.

Riely Rumfort

I once tried helping Musk with this exact problem, no reply, no help for him.
And more than likely a series/chain of crashes.

jeffhre

If it opens, it slows down from air pressure (dangerously quickly). If it does not, it goes past the damage?

Mahmet Tokarev (Tajik Pride)

Nope, a containment error just causes the capsules to slow down and stop. You can read all about it in the hyperloop white paper (google is your friend).

Bri

It would only damage the train at that point, not subsequent trains. This would be no more easy a target than existing modes of transportation. This is fear mongering at its worst.

kroozin

What speed are we talking about here?

DukeAJuke ✓σοφός

Around 720mph.

Ekard

Initial target is ~700mph

maverick909

I would be willing to pay 75% of the cost of flying to move at half the speed of the airlines if it means avoiding airports and those flying sardine cans. Hyperloops will never be delayed due to fog, snow, or heavy rain. I just hope one never breaks down out in the middle of the desert.

huskydog

I thought Al Gore was the one who came up with the network of tubes thingy.

wow

elon makes ideas a reality which is much bigger… Any kid can have a great imagination.
Elon has almost went bankrupt so many times with all his companies like paypal, tesla and space x which were all already pre-existing ideas but no one had the balls to make it a reality.
This is why elon is the smartest man of our generation.

I love how the “proposed hyperloop network” image connects detroit and Chicago directly, apparently unaware of this little thing called Lake Michigan that is immediately between them. The fact that there would be no way of traveling between the NYC and the West coast without routing through Texas/deep south is also bizarre. Compare that image to an image of the Amtrak system and you are left to conclude whoever came up with the hyperloop network is batsh*t insane.

NewCenturion

Cheap Tickets MY ASS… Who the Hell do they think they’re fooling? They only say that shit to get us to pay for it, then it’s SCREW THE CONSUMER… EVERY TIME.

Bri

It will have to be price competitive with the airlines and at least it won’t be Amtrak…

Rick Exner

Sorry for this digression. The Extremetech website has been very weird
for a week. Every story appears twice, in sequence. Until I disabled
the HTTPS extension, only the site’s page footer would render. If my
computer is the only one with this problem, I give it a B+ for
creativity.

Richard “Raptorian” C.

Same problem. C-

Bri

Which is why you don’t stop on a dime in this thing… I honestly doubt they’ll even have seat belts.

Richard “Raptorian” C.

And is why they have something called… TESTS! they have ways of measuring how much of it humans will feel without humans actually being on board.

Daniel Wisehart

It better be fast if they are going to build the network shown in the top image.

To get from San Francisco to NYC, you have to first go to Phoenix and then to Houston and then to Chicago and finally you can end up in NYC. The same trip starting in Seattle passes through San Francisco.

It is interesting that they talk about costs per trip of less than $50 but they have given no clear picture of the trillions of dollars necessary to build the guideway. Much of the cost of building an existing railroad is the cost of building the right-of-way. If they are going to build the Hyperloop up in the air, the costs are higher than building at grade–though without the problems of crossing the guideway. How much will it cost to build a single, short, highly used leg like Washington D.C. to NYC?

I wonder what impact protections they are planning for a vehicle moving 700 MPH, or are they just assuming it will never crash?

NewCenturion

Jesus Christ… Let’s spend a Trillion or Two on THIS Money Pit.. I mean WE MUST Build this… because some Rich Pricks are afraid to Fly. Fuck off..

Marc GP

It’s not a matter of being afraid to fly, it’s a matter that this can be a much more practical (and cheaper) method of transportation than flying.

As fast as flying but the stations can be in the middle of the city, the pods can go every few minutes so you just need to go to the station whenever you want and take the next pod available, it won’t use fossil fuels, … … …

Their studies expect it to be much cheaper than the traditional high-speed railway networks that we are building in Europe.